Risk Assessment for Horse Meat Contamination of Beef

Hi,

A company I am doing work for has been asked to carry out a risk assessment regarding horse meat contamination of the beef they buy in for the manufacture of frozen meat products. Has anyone else been requested for this, and if so how did or would you go about it?

I don't see which risk assesement could minimise the chance of horse meat contamination when fraude is happening.

It would be an easy one : If fraude is happening the chance is 100%, otherwise 0%

The only thing you could do a risk assesment is when there is a chance of cross-contamination at the supplier side when he is doing and beef and horse.
Then you should look at how the supplier is handling both productions and his procedures to minimise cross contaminations.

So in my opnion 'risk assessments can only be made when someone actually can try to avoid something (like crosscontamination)

Fraude is another thing, it's called illegal and cannot / shouldn't be risk assessed.

It sounds like you are being asked to determine the likelihood of horse meat contamination of other products associated with your supplier. Mendeljev is correct. You have two issues. One is fraud and the second is cross contamination. The second is more straight forward. The controls and procedures within the suppliers facilities can be audited and assessed. From this you can make a judgement and recommendations. The issue of fraud is IMO beyond the scope of a company purchasing food products. You are not a law enforcement agency. Ultimately, final product testing of each batch delivered is the only tool available were this is no trust.